The inauguration of Pres. Rafael Correa in January 2007 added Ecuador to the list of South American countries in which elected leftist leaders sought to implement major political, economic, and social change. Correa moved swiftly to overhaul the constitution and Ecuador’s discredited political institutions. In an April referendum, voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of a constituent assembly with the power to dissolve the National Congress and draft a new charter. Fifty-seven legislators who had sought to block the vote were stripped of their posts by the electoral court. A constitutional court ordered them reinstated, but Correa’s alliance won a majority of seats in September elections for the assembly. On November 29 the constituent assembly began working and immediately dissolved the Congress.

Newly installed Ecuadoran Pres. Rafael Correa waves from a balcony at the Government Palace in …

AP

Correa’s opponents accused him of an unconstitutional power grab. He was denounced as a tyrant by wealthy banana grower Álvaro Noboa, his opponent in the 2006 elections. The president’s personal popularity remained high among Ecuadorans weary of corruption and mismanagement, and he appeared to favour political reform as a priority over economic nationalism. He said that he would disavow debts contracted corruptly or illegally, but fears that Ecuador would default on foreign debt payments due in February proved unfounded. The government said that it would renegotiate agreements with private oil companies to increase its share of revenues but at the same time signaled its desire to keep Ecuador attractive to investment. Nevertheless, protests by Indians and settlers in the Amazon region continued to disrupt oil production. Ecuador declined to participate in a U.S.-led inter-American naval exercise. Correa stated that he favoured U.S. legislation to extend the existing Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (which gave trade preferences to Ecuador in exchange for antinarcotic aid) but opposed its replacement, a bilateral free-trade agreement between Ecuador and the U.S.

The economic impact of remittances was highlighted when a Spanish firm unveiled an automated system that allowed the estimated 400,000 Ecuadorans living in Spain to select and pay for goods that their relatives could collect in Ecuador. The country’s groups who produce the high-quality straw headwear known as Panama hats for a living said that their industry faced extinction, in part because of competition from cheap paper imitations produced in China. The UN declared the fauna-rich Galapagos Islands an endangered World Heritage site, and strict curbs on tourism were proposed. Newly installed Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, her daughter, and five army officers were killed in January in a helicopter collision near the Manta air force base.